My Daddy taught me to love gardening and I think of him every year around Valentine\u2019s Day.\u00a0 Why? A couple of reasons. One is that he always brought me the first Narcissus bloom around this time each year. As we reminisced about that, I told mom that I was sorry he didn\u2019t bring them to her and she simply said, \u201cNever!\u201d I guess he knew how much I loved them and how many memories they carried from my childhood. It was really just a simple gesture of love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other reason is because he taught me that roses need to be pruned around February 14th<\/sup>.\u00a0 I forget lots of things about gardening but never that.\u00a0 No matter what the weather, the \u00a0clippers come out this time of year and I start chopping away.\u00a0 I\u2019m really not knowledgeable enough to do a great job, but I listen to his voice in my head saying, \u201cYou have to cut it back more than you think but not so much that it can\u2019t survive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daddy was a preacher. Even when he wasn\u2019t preaching. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This year, as I studied the branches that were crossing, crowded areas that needed more sun and dead branches that wouldn\u2019t survive, I carefully clipped. \u201cCarefully\u201d because those thorns never fail to get me.\u00a0 No matter how careful I am, my hands are poked, scratched and bleeding by the end of the day.\u00a0 But that\u2019s the price you pay for beautiful roses in May. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Roses\u2026the symbol of love this time of year.\u00a0 As people are paying a lot of money for a dozen roses, I\u2019m cutting back a plant that looks like it may not survive.\u00a0 And I feel it\u2019s pain.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Deeper than any other year of pruning\u2026I feel every snip of the clippers. I feel the doubt that it will produce a flourishing plant full of blooms that bring joy and color to the world. I feel the fear that I\u2019m cutting so much that it\u2019s simply going to give up and die. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And I wonder if God is doing too much pruning for my heart to handle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Will I come out of this healthier? More fruitful? Beautiful? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I have to trust that the master gardener knows what he\u2019s doing better than my Daddy did.\u00a0 I have to trust in the truth that I\u2019ve always seen these roses come back to life.\u00a0 In fact, that\u2019s why I love spring. It\u2019s a living lesson that life comes after death in this world\u2026and in my heart. In God\u2019s economy, it ALWAYS does.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I make a conscious decision to surrender to his hands and to his wisdom. \u00a0I can\u2019t understand the ways of God but I do understand that he loves me. He knows my heart. He knows my need. And he knows where we are headed. So, if he\u2019s doing the delicate work of pruning in my life, he\u2019s doing it with a plan in mind.\u00a0 Even when I can\u2019t see it, I can trust that his goal is to have a fruitful plant that brings love and beauty into this world. Even when I become prickly and fight against the process, he gently whispers to my heart and moves me forward \u00a0at a pace I can handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking at this rose bush, I\u2019m concerned that it looks lifeless and has suffered a traumatic loss, but God encourages me that he has created a world that will bring abundance and beauty as it (and I) simply receive what He provides. It all comes from his hand. It\u2019s all grace. It\u2019s all love. And the thorns and cutting and death of the season will only produce more beauty and love to share in the next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So, Lord…let it be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My Daddy taught me to love gardening and I think of him every year around Valentine\u2019s Day.\u00a0 Why? A couple of reasons. One is that he always brought me the first Narcissus bloom around this time each year. As we reminisced about that, I told mom that I was sorry he didn\u2019t bring them to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1714,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,646,7],"tags":[128,141,211,688,232,246,249,271,274,305,331,687,444,490,537,562,594,625],"class_list":["post-1709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faith","category-grief","category-seasons","tag-death","tag-difficulties","tag-flowers","tag-fruitfullness","tag-god","tag-grief","tag-growth","tag-holy-spirit","tag-hope","tag-jesus","tag-life","tag-pruning","tag-purpose","tag-seasons","tag-spring","tag-surrender","tag-trust","tag-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karenlawson.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}